


Bittersweet Reconciliation

by Whale



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, I am Unsure of How to Tag This, I'm Bad At Tagging, Let's go with that, Misuse of D&D Mechanics, huh that tag actually applies, probably, the M9 go and visit an old friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:20:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25611985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whale/pseuds/Whale
Summary: “How do you think Mollymauk would feel seeing the Mighty Nein as they are now?”“Man, I do think about that on occasion. I think he’d be somewhere between quietly proud and deeply embarrassed by how nice they’ve all gotten. Like,‘Nooo, no, stay awful! But justenoughawful. Just therightamount of awful.’I think he’d be quietly proud…”Or, in which Taliesan Jaffe makes me cry, once again, so my Goblin Brain says "make that into a story".
Comments: 6
Kudos: 92





	Bittersweet Reconciliation

“Well, hello again my friend! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” 

“It’s been… yes, _ mein Freund _ . It has.”   
  
“Respectfully, what can I do for you, Caleb Widogast?”   
  


“Do you… do you have any… a conjuration spell? A- a spell to… travel between- planes?”

“Ah… I see. That’s quite a big ask, my friend. I believe I know what you’re askin’ for, but it’ll take a while and it won’t come cheap, if you know what I mean?”

“That is no longer a concern, Mr. Sol.”   
  


“Mm. Well, in that case, if you come back in three weeks time, I believe we can do some business, Mr. Widogast. I can have all the components of the spell ready, with the scroll for future use ready, if I know the place you’re wantin’ to go. Will this be a one way trip?”

“Nein, no a- a two-way trip, if you would.”

“Good, good. You had me worried for a second there, Mr. Widogast! Where were you wantin’ to travel to?”

“Ah, that is- to… to the Astral Plane, Mr. Sol.”

There was a beat of silence in the shop.

“Respectfully, Mr. Widogast… can I say? Fuck.”

“Yes, I believe that is the proper reaction, Mr. Sol. Fuck.”

\----------

It actually took four weeks for Pumat Sol to craft the scroll for Planar Shift and 2 forked metal rods, one attuned to the current plane and one to the Astral Plane. The total cost was an outstanding amount of gold that caused Fjord’s eyes to bug out of his head. When Caleb started to slowly count out one gold piece at a time, Beau lifted her hand to hit him over her head. Caleb, who was on gold piece number four of fifteen hundred, didn’t notice but Yasha gently placed her hand on top of Beau’s and simply lifted the chest they’d brought along to the  _ Vagrant  _ and placed it on the counter. 

“Will this be enough?” Pumat smiled. 

The Mighty Nein knew they only had one shot at what they hoped to achieve, and that this plan might be one of the stupidest they ever hoped to achieve. There were an infinite number of things that could go wrong, an infinite number of things that were  _ definitely  _ going to go wrong- but at least this plan didn’t involve a ship that was going to get destroyed this time. This plan was also one of the most important to them. 

Caleb took five minutes to read the scroll and learn the seventh level Conjuration spell. Veth whispered about how he was just “ _ so smart _ ” under her breath. After all this time, she still never failed to be impressed by that. The rest of the Nein had to admit that  _ this _ , what Caleb was attempting to do  _ now _ , was damn impressive. The anticipation and nerves that flowed through the rest of the party covered up any anxiety Caleb felt. 

“Alright, let’s- we have to hold hands,” Caleb carefully rolled the scroll back up and held the forked metal rod attuned to the Astral Plane in his left hand, wiping his other palm on his pants legs. 

“Oh my  _ gods _ , that’s like,  _ so romantic _ !” Jester grinned from ear to ear, maneuvering it so she could press herself up against Fjord and wiggle her eyebrows at him. Fjord rolled her eyes at Jester’s antics, but still took her hand. Beau and Yasha stood next to each other, and Yasha tried to ask Beau to hold her hand twice- each time failing spectacularly before Fjord muttered “ _ Sweet Wildmother _ ” under his breath before looking up at Caduceus guiltily. Cad winked at Fjord, grabbing his other hand. 

Once the Mighty Nein were all holding hands in a circle, with Caleb holding the rod in his left hand, they all closed their eyes for dramatic effect before they opened their eyes and-

  
  
  
  


“I’m sorry, but who  _ the fuck _ are you all?”

There was a tall, half evlen man standing in front of them with two bright blue feathers braided into his black hair. Behind the man was  a great, endless sphere of clear silvery sky, both above and below. Large tube-shaped clouds slowly coil into the distance, some appearing like thunderheads and others looking like immobile tornadoes of gray wind. Erratic whirlpools of color flicker in midair like spinning coins. 

“ _ Cayyyleb _ ! Did you get us lost? Did you take a wrong turn? I knew we should have stopped and asked for directions!”

Caleb took a deep, cleaning breath and released Jester’s hand. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “There is  _ no-  _ it’s a  _ spell-  _ I cannot  _ turn-  _ Fjord,  _ please _ .” Fjord wrapped his hand around Jester’s mouth. The half-elven man held up one white finger.

“DId you just say- Caleb?  _ Fjord _ ? Gods it would be just my fucking luck, wouldn’t it?” The man looked to the, well it wasn’t really the sky, was it? If the entire plane  _ was  _ the sky. But he looked skywards. “Are you looking for a tiefling? Purple? Elaborately decorated?  _ Annoying as hell? _ ”

Jester squealed and clapped her hands together at the same time that Fjord yanked his hand away from Jester’s mouth with a yelp, wiping his palm on her dress with a muttered ‘ _ gross, Jessie! _ ’ “You know Molly! Because we’re, like, totally looking for him! That’s why we came here! Can you take us to him?  _ Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepl- _ ” 

“Are all your tiefling friends like this?” The man asked, tilting his head to the side at Jester as Fjord wrapped his hand around her mouth again.

“Dude!” Beau exclaimed, “ _ Racist _ !” 

Yasha shook her head sadly, “That is unfortunate, coming from a half elf.”

“I think that’s also a little bit racist,” Veth stage whispered. Caleb was unsure which god to pray to for patience.

“Maybe we should just start going, and lessen the agony of this whole thing,  _ ja _ ?” The man nodded his head in agreement

\----------

Mollymauk Tealeaf rested his head against the small, blue knee of Sephanine as she carded her hands through his hair. He had just finished regaling her with another tale of the Mighty Nein involving his dick and some scrambled eggs. She had laughed when appropriate, gasped in horror where necessary, and applauded at the end. She had also heard this story an innumerable amount of times. She never complained, not once, when Molly ran out of stories to tell her and had to repeat a few. When his voice would peter off and his chest would grow painfully tight and his heart would twist into knots as he thought about mismatched eyes, and ginger hair, and very old pastries, and a little goblin with a fear of water, Sephanine would gently lay Molly’s head on her knee and run her fingers through his hair until he drifted off into the facsimile off sleep he was allotted as a deceased soul. His Moonweaver was endless in her kindness to him.

Molly never had real dreams, because he was dead. He only relived his memories. He told a fortune for a little bright eyed, blue skinned tiefling girl. He stared in horror as a gruff monk told a party exactly how to travel by caravan without leaving any tracks. He kissed a wizard’s forehead and helped him out of a flashback. He watched a little goblin try and steal papers from his friend’s backpack. 

“ _ Ohmygosh _ , guys, there he is! Is he  _ sleeping _ ?  _ Psst _ ! Molly are you  _ sleeping _ ? I didn’t know you could sleep when you’re d- oh. I didn’t know saying it would make me so sad, wow. Wow okay, I was trying to be, like, super positive and happy and stuff because I know he wouldn’t want us to be, like, super mushy and stuff but I’m. I’m, like, really sad but also happy to see him right now you guys.” 

Molly didn’t really remember this memory. It sounded like Jester, but he couldn’t remember this conversation.

“Wow, yeah fuck. I, uh. Yeah, no I getcha Jessie. He hasn’t changed at all. I mean, yeah of course he wouldn’t have changed, right? Yeah, no that would be stupid. But seeing it is different than knowing it, you know? I got a tattoo for this asshole, and now he’s just… he’s just here. Sleeping. Fuck.”

Well, that definitely couldn’t be Beau, because it sounded like Beau was crying. Moly couldn’t remember Beau ever crying. She was too busy acting tough or failing to flirt with Yasha. Yeah, that definitely wasn’t a memory of Beau. Molly felt his forehead twitch in confusion.

“Did you see that? _ Did you see that _ ? His forehead twitched! Can he hear us? Is he pretending to be asleep? Hey! Molly! Wake up!  _ Wake _ !  _ Up _ !”

Nott sounded  _ different _ . Less… gravelly. Less… animalistic? That’s not the right word, but Molly was as asleep as he could be, being dead, and words didn’t come to him as easy when he was like this. Nott sounding different, though, meant that his memory was different. What was happening…?

“Well that was definitely a frown. Maybe he’s having a nightmare. Veth go poke him.”

Molly didn’t know who Veth was, and whoever was talking sounded like Fjord, but with a completely different accent. Maybe Fjord was trying out something new. Jester had mentioned something about him imitating his father figure’s accent. 

“Let’s not- Veth please do not poke him. I am not entirely sure about the implications of poking a sp- a spir- of poking Mollymauk right now.”

“I agree. Let’s just wait until he wakes up. I’m sure he’s waited a long enough time for us.”

Molly’s eyes flew open at the sound of Caleb and Yasha’s quiet voices. Those weren’t memories. None of the voices he’d been hearing had been memories. He hadn’t been dreaming. He was still faced upwards, towards the silvery sky of the Astral Plane. The Moonweaver’s face smiled and stared down at him. There was no one else there. He was still alone. Still dead. Molly tried to cover up his crushing disappointment with a smirk and a wink. “Well, darling, those fake dreams are getting more and more wild every time I attempt them. I  _ must  _ start writing them down. Think you could send a few naughty ones my way? It’s been  _ ages  _ since-”

Molly’s attempt at nonchalance was cut off as he heard a very familiar shriek and his vision turned to shades of blue. Warm arms enveloped him and he heard muffled sobs and very quiet,  _ “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry” _ whispered into his shoulder over, and over, and over again. Molly’s wide, scarlet eyes looked over Jester’s shoulders as he looked as he took in the view of his friends' faces for the first time, for once uncaring about the hot splash of tears flowing down his cheeks. “ _ What… _ ?” Jester had not stopped apologizing into Molly’s skin, or bawling.

Caleb held up a twisted piece of metal, as if that explained everything, and shrugged a little helplessly. 

Vax’ildan cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck, obviously uncomfortable, “I’m gonna… I can’t leave you all alone,” he muttered something along the lines of  _ ‘Raven Queen will have my neck’ _ and _ ‘really need to make sure you don’t take him back with you’ _ before he sighed and moved away a couple of feet, giving the party some space.

Molly rubbed Jester’s back comfortingly, still a little shell shocked at seeing them all, “I’m going to need a little explanation than Jester’s several thousand apologies and Caleb’s bit of wire, darlings. Are you all dead?” Molly leaned back, away from the cacophony of  _ no’s  _ that question was greeted with. Molly smirked a little. “Was that really so far out there? We do have a habit of toeing the line, don’t we?” Molly eyed Fjord’s jagged scar that marred his chest, grinning wider as he flushed copper. Jester pulled away from Molly slightly to look deep into his scarlet eyes, sniffling wetly.

“Molly I really am sorry. I’m  _ really, really _ sorry.” Molly blinked back a few more tears, reaching up and swiping underneath Jester’s left eye.

“Oh darling, I never blamed you. Any of you. I even got to watch you all, sometimes, you know? And I’ve got to say… and don’t repeat any of this, because I’ll definitely deny it, but I’m even a little proud.” Jester beamed at him through a fresh gush of tears. “Although I can’t believe how  _ nice  _ you’ve all gotten!” Molly aimed his mock glare at the rest of the party over Jester’s shoulder, steadfastly ignoring the rest of his friend’s waterworks. Beau chuckled wetly and flipped him off.

\----------

Everyone sat in a circle, talking over each other and regaling Molly with tales of all their adventures. Molly sat reclined against Yasha as she braided flowers into his hair. Molly gasped at all the right bits, laughed when he should, and applauded appropriately.

“Caduceus Clay, I’m Mollymauk Tealeaf- Molly to my friends. You’ve taken very good care of mine. Thank you.”

“Well, that’s why you were afraid of water. Shit N- Veth. I said some fucked up things. I’m real sorry.”

“Well, I think I could’ve come up with a better name than Ball-Eater for a ship-  _ honestly _ !”

“Heroes of the Dynasty, huh? Again, when did you all get so  _ nice _ ?”

The Mighty Nein, finally reunited, lost track of how long they spent, sitting around in a circle talking and laughing. It felt so natural and  _ right  _ that they all almost forgot that it had to end until Vax’ildan walked up to them, rubbing unhappily at the back of his head. A sudden pall fell over the group as they looked up at him.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve let you all stay as long as I can. It’s time to go.”

Molly stood with a languid stretch and a smile that was too casual to be anything but a mask, dusting his hands off, “Well, darlings, this has been excellent but I’m sure there’s another Dynasty that needs saving or an orphanage on fire or-” Jester cut him off by wrapping her arms around his waist.

Her voice was thick with unshed tears as she whispered, “I don’t want to leave without you,”

“You’ve never left without me, darling, “ Molly murmured, petting the top of her head, “I’ve never left you alone.”

Suddenly, he was surrounded by a crushing group hug, everyone ignoring the runny noses and wet eyes. As they all pulled away, the living clasping hands and Caleb pulling out the unused forked metal rod, Molly called out to the family that had found him and saved him, “Hey, loves? Can you do something for me? When you’re out there? Can you stay awful? Just  _ enough _ , though. Just the  _ right  _ amount of awful- for me.” 

The last thing that the Might Nein saw was a scarlet eye winking at them before they were standing in Zadash, outside the  _ Invulnerable Vagrant _ . It started to rain.

**Author's Note:**

> Did I make myself cry, just a little, while writing this? No comment.   
> Did I butcher the mechanics of D&D? Absolutely, I am not a DM and have no concept of _rules_. I am deeply sorry please tell me every mistake I made in the comments.  
> This all came about because Taliesan Jaffe never fails to make me Feel Things. Constantly. Incessantly. I hate him for it and will beg that he never stop.


End file.
